ABSTRACT

With growing environmental awareness, depletion of oil reservoirs, and increasing costs of petroleum substances, research efforts have been initiated toward the development of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) that are biodegradable and renewable in nature. Such nanocomposites are called green polymer nanocomposites because they are environmentally friendly and sustainable. Nanocomposites consist of two phases: the matrix phase and the dispersed or reinforcement phase. In green PNCs, the matrix phase is usually made up of biopolymers and the dispersion phase is composed of natural fillers. Due to the nanosize of the fillers and the large surface-to-volume ratio, PNCs have shown drastic improvement in their mechanical and thermal properties, gas and water permeability, heat distortion, and flame retardancy. Due to these improvements, they have gained wide application in many fields such as packaging, automobile, construction, pharmaceuticals, and biomedical engineering. In this chapter, we give an overview of green PNCs. The importance of green molecules and a general outline of polymer nanocomposites are described.